Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotel is ready to invite you in. Fox Searchlight has released the first trailer for the highly anticipated movie, which chronicles the goings-on at a fancy hotel, like friendship, young love, art theft, and possibly — gasp! — murder. Check it out after the jump.

What’s the story with Fox’s new Fantastic Four, to be directed by Josh Trank of Chronicle? Jeremy Slater scripted, and while there have been some small polishes done on that draft here and there, recently we heard that Simon Kinberg (Fox’s current go-to guy with respect to comic book adaptations) was hired to do work on the script.

We don’t know what that rewrite is going to achieve, and until it is done we’re not likely to hear about any real casting decisions. But in the meantime Fox and the film’s producers are still working on lists of choices for the main roles in the movie, and several names have been leaked to the public. Read More »

If she could go back in time, the actress probably wouldn’t have said that. But she did. It’s out there. And in a new interview Ronan not only admits it again, she spoke about the actual process. Here’s a tease: “I had so much fun pretending to take out a lightsaber.”

Is she continuing to talk about this because she’s didn’t get the part? Or is she talking about it because she’s close, and wants to gauge fan reaction? Read her quote and discuss below. Read More »

Another day, another Star Wars rumor. Unlike the talk about Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, however, this one involves someone who’s never worked with J.J. Abrams before.

According to a new report, Saoirse Ronan has read for a role in Episode VII. “Has read for” is a long way off from “finalized a deal for,” but personally, I’d love to see this one pan out. Hit the jump for more details on her potential casting — as well as the latest update to the Cumberbatch story.

Saoirse Ronan has already seen the world end once this year, in the Stephenie Meyer adaptation The Host. But in How I Live Now, the new drama by The Last King of Scotland helmer Kevin MacDonald, the enemy isn’t invading aliens, but bitter humankind.

The Irish actress plays American gal Daisy, who’s sent to stay with distant relatives in the English countryside when World War III breaks out. Though she initially feels out of place, she eventually warms to her cousins and even strikes up a romance with one of them, the handsome Edmond (George MacKay). With Daisy’s aunt Penn (Anna Chancellor) stuck in Oslo thanks to the war, the kids enjoy an idyllic freedom for a time.

But as the conflict worsens, soldiers arrive at their remote farm and take the kids away, splitting the boys and girls apart. Daisy struggles to survive and, eventually, reunite with her cousins. Watch the first trailer after the jump.

Want to see more of that unused 1989 Batman poster? Would Saoirse Ronan like to appear in The Avengers 2? What’s going on with Nick Fury on the set of Captain America: The Winter Soldier? Did you see a digital Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man 3? Are superhero movies good date movies? Read about all this and more in today’s Superhero Bits. Read More »

Byzantium may be the year’s ultimate horror movie, because it is about a girl who is sixteen years old forever, and I can’t think of many things more horrible than spending eternity in that transitional phase.

Saoirse Ronan plays a woman who appears to be young, but in fact is a vampire, and has been since she was sixteen… which was a couple hundred years ago. Her mother, played by Gemma Arterton, is also a vampire, and they must periodically flee to a new safe haven. The film finds them settling into a dilapidated coastal town, but secrets are revealed, and trouble brews.

Neil Jordan directs from a script by Moira Buffini, and Byzantium looks like it is cut straight from the cloth Jordan used for films such as Interview With the Vampire and The Company of Wolves. Jordan’s visuals, captured by Hunger and Shame cinematographer Sean Bobbitt, are lovely, and this first US trailer presents them well. Read More »

What can we make of Violet & Daisy, which seems to run with the same semi-arthouse tendencies of Hanna or The Professional?

The movie shot in 2010 and played TIFF to varied reviews in 2011. Cinedigm picked it up for distribution last fall, and will release the movie in June. Perhaps the company decided to hold the film until after this year’s opening of The Host. This film does, after all, star Saoirse Ronan (of The Host) along with Alexis Bleidel and James Gandolfini. The girls play teen assassins; he’s their mark.

If The Host had been a hit, surfing in its wake would have been a good idea. The Host was not a hit, and so now Violet & Daisy has to make its own way as a bit of summer counter-programming. (Putting a bit of distance between this and Hanna was also not a bad idea.) Or perhaps it seemed like a good idea to wait until this could exist in proximity to Spring Breakers and The Bling Ring. Oddly enough, the movies all seem to be of a piece.

The trailer has some mysterious images and enticing moments, but I can’t quite get a sense of what the movie really is. Check it out below, and have a look at the great poster we debuted last week. Read More »